2019 Off-Season Thread: We Got This Bread, Man

He's not a player you offer sheet, IMO. Complementary winger without the scoring touch or intangibles to make him a league-wide attraction on that front.

You'd only give a 2nd for a longer term deal, and Buch is unproven so not sure a year of Buch is worth a 2nd.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/27096159/2019-nhl-free-agency-grades-analysis-every-big-signing

"...This should be the model for all teams who need to retool, and how to do it in the shortest window possible. It was only February 2018 when the Rangers sent out the now-infamous letter to fans... Seventeen months later, they're poised to win yet again. They signed the most coveted free-agent forward on the market in Panarin, and signed him through his prime years. They acquired a new No. 1 defenseman in Jacob Trouba. They acquired a potential top-four defenseman in Adam Fox. They drafted a generational scoring talent in Kakko. The future is no longer bleak....Overall grade: A"

Always nice to get some positive reinforcement

Gorton really needs an award for Luckiest GM.

Win the lottery.

Trouba and Fox force trades.

Panarin makes it to UFA.

And he gets all the credit haha.

Gorton really needs an award for Luckiest GM.

 

Win the lottery.

Trouba and Fox force trades.

Panarin makes it to UFA.

 

And he gets all the credit haha.

But as you’ve seen with the Knicks, if you don’t represent yourself well, those things don’t happen (lottery aside). He didn’t have to trade for trouba or fox. Could have waited on Fox like some suggested and gambled and lost. Could have targeted a different defensenmen than trouba, say Karlsson and lost — or paid way too much.

The latter is a Sather move.

Let’s not forget he also put his career on the line to release that letter. If he didn’t rebuild this team he may never have worked again. Everything that’s been done has been done boldly and with transparency. He deserves all the credit.

Gorton really needs an award for Luckiest GM.

 

Win the lottery.

Trouba and Fox force trades.

Panarin makes it to UFA.

 

And he gets all the credit haha.

Patience.

We discussed trades for all three guys for over a year. Prices came way down.

The 2nd, and the combined amount of skill of the 4 acquisitions is astounding. That’s beyond luck.

Gorton really needs an award for Luckiest GM.

 

Win the lottery.

Trouba and Fox force trades.

Panarin makes it to UFA.

 

And he gets all the credit haha.

He deserves the credit, though. Had to have the assets to make the trades and the signings - and he made those moves.

The lottery, sure, yeah, that's luck; there's a world where we're sitting here wondering if Cozens or Zegras or Turcotte is ready to go this year to ride shotgun with Kravtsov.

Gorton really needs an award for Luckiest GM.

 

Win the lottery.

Trouba and Fox force trades.

Panarin makes it to UFA.

 

And he gets all the credit haha.

Luck is the residue of hard work and design.

Luck is the residue of hard work and design.

That might be true of Panarin, but he basically stepped in shit with Kakko and the other two forced trades. Not sure how Gorton's hard work comes into play.

Inclined to agree a bit with Pete here. Gorton has gotten very, very fortunate for deciding to rebuild during this particular period. It's not every day a #1 D in their mid-20s decides to hold out for a trade. Not every day you win the lottery in the draft where the top 2 players are both franchise players. Not every day a talented young D prospect that's lighting the world on fire makes it publicly known that he'll only come here. Not every day a 27 year old super talent hits the free agency.

This being said, somebody previously posted a picture of Gorton's acquisitions and departures in his time here and, frankly, the view from 30,000 feet is impressive. It paints a picture of a strategic plan with master stroke moves.

This off-season DRASTICALLY changed the outlook, largely due to luck, but prior to that he was doing an admirable doing something no Rangers GM has ever really committed to in our near-century long history. And you do have to be prepared to strike while the iron is hot and not get beat to the punch while still managing to not get extorted. The return for Hayes was significant because he turned in to Trouba and Lemieux, essentially. My first reaction to that trade was "other teams get these kinds of deals, not us." I mean, when have we ever been on the side of a trade where the world is saying our trade partner got fleeced? Anson Carter for Jagr maybe? Ordinarily we'd be the team that forfeited the 20th pick, Buchnevich, Lias, and Lundkvist, which is why Brooks speculated as to that price.

The bottom line is that if you look at the sum total of his moves, it's a truly incredible effort at rebuilding. But let's be clear: there is no "rebuild on the fly" absent the Fox/Trouba/Kakko/Panarin moves. Without this particular off-season, we're just a rebuilding team, not a team trying to do an accelerated rebuild and contend ASAP. Krav and Shesty help, but we always knew at some point they'd be here. He gets all the credit in the world for cashing in on luck when he got it (like he could've come in high on an offer for Trouba or Fox instead of, presumably, low-balling to eventually arrive at a palatable price, could've tried to outsmart scouting services and picked someone other than Kakko, could've outbid the Isles for Panarin's services, etc.) He's stuck to his guns and has been unwavering in the commitment to the rebuild and "doing things the right way," and bucking the trend of the Rangers being the team to extort via both trade and free agency. Some of the moves have been truly terrific (Nash, Grabs, Hayes, McD, Stepan, etc.), and I don't think he's overpaid for anything in his time here.

But make no mistake: the fact that both Rangers fans and pundits are talking about us sniffing the playoffs as soon as next season is SOLELY due to this off-season, and this off-season was all luck and "right place, right time." I mean, hell, the biggest move for our future came literally from a lottery. Doesn't get luckier than that. Absent luck, all of us are waiting on Krav to take over as our future franchise forward, praying for someone else to show something offensively in the system (a Buch breakout? Morgan Barron? Andersson/Howden/Chytil taking huge steps forward?) and watching Henrik fade in to obscurity while we await Libor Hajek, K'Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, Yegor Rykov, Tarmo Reunanen, Joey Keane to fix the defense in 3-4 years.

Inclined to agree a bit with Pete here. Gorton has gotten very, very fortunate for deciding to rebuild during this particular period. It's not every day a #1 D in their mid-20s decides to hold out for a trade. Not every day you win the lottery in the draft where the top 2 players are both franchise players. Not every day a talented young D prospect that's lighting the world on fire makes it publicly known that he'll only come here. Not every day a 27 year old super talent hits the free agency.

 

This being said, somebody previously posted a picture of Gorton's acquisitions and departures in his time here and, frankly, the view from 30,000 feet is impressive. It pains a picture of a strategic plan with master stroke moves.

 

This off-season DRASTICALLY changed the outlook, largely due to luck, but prior to that he was doing an admirable doing something no Rangers GM has ever really committed to in our near-century long history. And you do have to be prepared to strike while the iron is hot and not get beat to the punch while still managing to not get extorted. The return for Hayes was significant because he turned in to Trouba and Lemieux, essentially. My first reaction to that trade was "other teams get these kinds of deals, not us." I mean, when have we ever been on the side of a trade where the world is saying our trade partner got fleeced? Anson Carter for Jagr maybe? Ordinarily we'd be the team that forfeited the 20th pick, Buchnevich, Lias, and Lundkvist, which is why Brooks speculated as to that price.

 

The bottom line is that if you look at the sum total of his moves, it's a truly incredible effort at rebuilding. But let's be clear: there is no "rebuild on the fly" absent the Fox/Trouba/Kakko/Panarin moves. Without this particular off-season, we're just a rebuilding team, not a team trying to do an accelerated rebuild and contend ASAP. Krav and Shesty help, but we always knew at some point they'd be here. He gets all the credit in the world for cashing in on luck when he got it (like he could've come in high on an offer for Trouba or Fox instead of, presumably, low-balling to eventually arrive at a palatable price, could've tried to outsmart scouting services and picked someone other than Kakko, could've outbid the Isles for Panarin's services, etc.) He's stuck to his guns and has been unwavering in the commitment to the rebuild and "doing things the right way," and bucking the trend of the Rangers being the team to extort via both trade and free agency. Some of the moves have been truly terrific (Nash, Grabs, Hayes, McD, Stepan, etc.), and I don't think he's overpaid for anything in his time here.

 

But make no mistake: the fact that both Rangers fans and pundits are talking about us sniffing the playoffs as soon as next season is SOLELY due to this off-season, and this off-season was all luck and "right place, right time." I mean, hell, the biggest move for our future came literally from a lottery. Doesn't get luckier than that. Absent luck, all of us are waiting on Krav to take over as our future franchise forward, praying for someone else to show something offensively in the system (a Buch breakout? Morgan Barron? Andersson/Howden/Chytil taking huge steps forward?) and watching Henrik fade in to obscurity while we await Libor Hajek, K'Andre Miller, Nils Lundkvist, Yegor Rykov, Tarmo Reunanen, Joey Keane to fix the defense in 3-4 years.

Threads like this are where we're at our best - glad to see it going on.

I think calling anything but the Kakko pick luck is a little unfair, though. The Trouba situation has been going on for 3 years; it isn't timing so much as it is recognizing opportunity. Suppose Winnipeg decided to take him to arbitration again, now fresh off being a top 15 scoring defender and playing #1-ish minutes, and just one more year away from UFA. Winnipeg can't let an asset like him go for nothing, and if they accepted the arbitration award, they'd have almost had to. Sure, a post-arbitration trade could have made sense, but both cap realities and their unique world (decent defensive pipeline, a bunch of really good RFA forwards due raises, that Trouba would probably have gotten 8+ in arb and then walk after yet another drag-em-out fight, the rapid decline of Trouba's value knowing that Winnipeg's got the screws to them in this situation) made this trade the right call for the 'Peg.

Same with Adam Fox; he had leverage on Calgary, and used it. He had leverage on Carolina, and used it. That he called his shot for us was a leverage ploy to play in the league right now (and favoritism, sure). If he didn't, he could just as easily have been dealt to the Blackhawks, say, and also have come out of the NCAA. Or, he could have run the clock on Carolina and called his shot a year later.

Even Panarin has dragged on; don't forget that he rejected an 8x9 deal last summer w/Columbus. We've had almost a year to prepare for having that cap space readily available, to make the pitch, to strengthen the argument, to persuade him that it's worth the difference in raw dollars to put on our sweater.

It's pretty fair to say that we've rebuilt faster for being able to take advantage of circumstance - recognizing where we can spend assets to take advantage of situations, getting better than fair returns on rentals, having the cap space to move on Breadman - but aside from Kakko, I'm not sure it's fair to say it's luck. You don't get Adam Fox if you don't have the extra picks. You don't get Jacob Trouba if you don't have the extra picks. You don't get K'Andre Miller if you don't have the extra picks. Gorton amassed key assets and struck when opportunity arose.

That's just good GM work.

Even if we didn't get the #2 pick or sign Panarin, Gorton has done a tremendous job acquiring picks, prospects, and replenishing the farm and the scouts look to have done a good job to this point in evaluating talent.

Most important, Gorton knew the right time to pull the plug.

Even if we didn't get the #2 pick or sign Panarin, Gorton has done a tremendous job acquiring picks, prospects, and replenishing the farm and the scouts look to have done a good job to this point in evaluating talent.

 

Most important, Gorton knew the right time to pull the plug.

The "infamous letter" is now looked at as something more teams should do/or wish they had done. It was BOLD. Especially in a market like NYC. Transparency has been paramount. We never saw Sather talk to the media. NEVER. We never knew what the fuck the plan was other than signing the most expensive free agent. Gorton has laid it all out for everyone to see: "I am going to trade everyone you love... but it's going to be okay."

And it is. Is there luck involved? Of course. But you need luck to win a cup. You also need shrewd managerial skills.

I definitely don't agree that they were the worst drafting team in the league.

Have you looked around the league?

I mean they swung and missed, hard in some cases, but there are other teams who've been horrendous on the ice and in the draft and way worse than NYR.

So now, it's assumed that the NYR are cup contenders? Long way off to the 2019/2020 play-offs, so all the chatter about how far this team has progressed is moot. None of these hot-shot draft choices has played one second in the NHL. A step back and a deep breath is in order.

I definitely don't agree that they were the worst drafting team in the league.

 

Have you looked around the league?

 

I mean they swung and missed, hard in some cases, but there are other teams who've been horrendous on the ice and in the draft and way worse than NYR.

I'd say the Rangers had been in the B grade range when it came to finding quality NHL middle 6 players, but an F at finding franchise type 1st line talents. Has always felt like other teams have been able to find a player with later picks outside the top 3-5, but never the Rangers. Talking about skaters of course, and excluding the Henrik pick 15 years ago.

So now, it's assumed that the NYR are cup contenders? Long way off to the 2019/2020 play-offs, so all the chatter about how far this team has progressed is moot. None of these hot-shot draft choices has played one second in the NHL. A step back and a deep breath is in order.

 

Glad you said it. Gm of the year? Maybe. Can they play a game first?

That might be true of Panarin, but he basically stepped in shit with Kakko and the other two forced trades. Not sure how Gorton's hard work comes into play.

All fair statements to be sure

But the guy has done a lot, via luck or not. He’s earned the right to some credit.

And no in ice results yet, so I’m still tempered in my optimism about him and this team

All fair statements to be sure

But the guy has done a lot, via luck or not. He?s earned the right to some credit.

 

And no in ice results yet, so I?m still tempered in my optimism about him and this team

So now, it's assumed that the NYR are cup contenders? Long way off to the 2019/2020 play-offs, so all the chatter about how far this team has progressed is moot. None of these hot-shot draft choices has played one second in the NHL. A step back and a deep breath is in order.

 

I don't think anyone sane are saying they're cup contenders. They should be there or thereabouts for the playoffs.

Yea, I'm not saying he's a bad GM or anything. He's just been INCREDIBLY fortunate this summer, which has sped up the rebuild dramatically.

For sure he has. As you said, stepped in shit with Kakko and got a huge bounce when Panarin decided to leave money on the table

As for Fox and Trouba, yeah they forced trades. But he got them for good prices.

He’s looking good sitting in that chair right now

For sure he has. As you said, stepped in shit with Kakko and got a huge bounce when Panarin decided to leave money on the table

 

As for Fox and Trouba, yeah they forced trades. But he got them for good prices.

 

He?s looking good sitting in that chair right now

Dubas, kid genius, on the other hand... Shitshow.